70's Ibanez prototype

[G. Fisher]

I believe this is a prototype Ibanez judging by the peghead and body shape. The scroll looks like the Ibanez mandos for the 70's. I was pleasantly surprised with the tone. I made a quick video.

http://youtu.be/DXqh-vN3P34

[G. Fisher]

Here are few pictures. I wish i could figure out how to embed the video.


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[Barry Wilson]

In the reply section the buttons above the area to type... you see the abc? 2 buttons to the left ;)

[G. Fisher]

http://youtu.be/DXqh-vN3P34




Thanks for the help Pipeous.:)

[Perry Babasin]

I never thought I'd see another one of these, although I heard there were a batch distributed in the Mid-West in '72 or '73!! I have one of them also, looks just like the early 524's ( mine is complete with the "banjo" inlays). It plays and sounds really nice, in fact I really love it! Sometime in the mid 70's Gary Price worked it over for a guy named Ron Mashore, and somebody (Gary says not him but I wonder...) put "The Gibson" inlay on the headstock. I'm going home from work and will post some pictures later. Looks vintage/beautiful but that open scroll is a dead give-away. And the headstock with the flowerpot inlay and black background! Very cool!

Some of the pictures in that old Ibanez catalog with Bill on the cover look exactly like these. Does this one have a really light finish where you can see the grain? I'll bet that's a really nice instrument. I've heard that these are much better mandolins than the later production Ibanez versions.

[Perry Babasin]

Sounds really nice! Thanks for posting...

[Ron McMillan]

It's a handsome instrument, for sure. Are there any markings inside? I have a late 70s no-name mandolin that differs from yours in a few key respects, but that people here (and I tend to agree with them) thought might be an Ibanez prototype. The only marking on it is a red-stamped '18' on the back inside the bass f-hole.

ron

[G. Fisher]

Perry,

It does have a light finish and you can see the wood grain. It is more light brown than the red that shows up in the picture.

Ron,

I checked inside and there are no markings anywhere.

[Perry Babasin]

Here is my contraption! This is the most appropriate place I've seen to post this. I had to rebuild the points (with white epoxy putty) because they were deteriorated but all the binding looks great now.

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Oh and the back has a little bit of figure but it is one piece...